Abbvie Still Rolls With Humira While Drug Pipeline Develops

Bruce Japsen
, ContributorI write about healthcare business and policyOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Drug maker Abbvie, which split off from Abbott Laboratories in January, will report this summer key data on clinical trials for its cancer and Alzheimer's medicines in development.

In its first quarter as a standalone pharmaceutical company,
AbbVie (ABBV) delivered as promised robust growth from its Humira biologic for myriad autoimmune diseases while Wall Street awaits some key studies coming this summer on the status of cancer and Alzheimer’s drugs.

The 16 percent increase in Humira sales to $2.2 billion helped Abbvie beat analysts’ earnings estimates for the first quarter and more importantly, overcome the loss of a projected $1 billion in sales from generic competition to its cholesterol drug franchise, the company reported today. The former proprietary drug business of
Abbott Laboratories (ABT) split off into its own company at the beginning of this year.

Humira is currently the most important drug to Abbvie, generating more than half of company sales. Humira, which is a biologic used to treat everything from rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis to Crohn’s disease, is also competing against similar biologics sold by
Amgen (AMGN), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) and
Pfizer (PFE).

Abbvie reported net income of $968 million, or 60 cents a share in the first quarter, compared to $883 million or 56 cents a share in the first quarter of 2012 when the business was part of Abbott. Earnings of 68 cents a share that excluded one-time items beat analysts’ estimates by a penny. Total sales rose nearly 4 percent to $4.3 billion.

If results of clinical trial results are positive, AbbVie chairman and chief executive Rick Gonzalez said investors should see “meaningful” new revenue in 2015 – a year ahead of potential cheaper competition to Humira.

“2013 is a year of execution across our commercial portfolio as well as our pipeline,” Gonzalez said during a 50-minute conference call with analysts and investors.